Alibaba sales volume soars on company’s self invented “Singles Day”

Alibaba Group Holding’s online shopping festival “Singles Day” has resulted in record transaction volume, topping $1 billion within the first 20 minutes.

Last year it took an hour to reach the $1 billion figure.

Within the first hour of “Singles Day” transaction volume surged to over $11 billion, with hundreds of millions of people shopping online to celebrate the November 11 “Singles Day”.

“Singles Day” was invented by Alibaba in 2009 as an anti-Valentine festival on China’s latest trend of celebrating bachelors. It is celebrated on November 11 — or “11.11,” the date with the most 1s and has since become the world’s biggest online shopping day.

For the first time foreign brands are also appearing making an appearance in the Singles Day event to try and tap into the market and make a profit, with brands such as Calvin Klein, Blue Nile Inc, Costco Wholesale Corp., Origins Natural Resources Inc., as well as Inditex Group participating in the booming e-commerce scene in China.